Just Not Enemies
by inspiresxlove
Summary: LoVe season 1. The Veronica he'd been friends with hadn't been able to hate anyone or anything. It was the one thing her large heart didn't seem to have the capacity for.
1. Chapter 1

Title: Just Not Enemies  
Summary: LoVe season one. I hate you. Who knew those words could hurt so much? He didn't..  
Disclaimer: Rob Thomas created the characters, but I love 'em more.  
A/N: so, my apologies about not getting it out sooner. but, its out now, so please review and let me know what you think!

* * *

Just Not Enemies  
Part 1/?

* * *

"I... hate you." 

As soon as the words left her mouth, Veronica knew they would change everything. She'd never said that to anyone before. Not Duncan when he broke up with her, not Weevil for his lame attempt at sexual harassment, and not even Lamb for telling her to 'go see the wizard' when in the most vulnerable state of her life.

Logan's mouth had been open and ready with a retort for her latest comeback, but instead it hung open in shock.

Veronica didn't know what made this day, or this argument, different from their usual spats. She'd had a bad day long before Logan had cornered her in the hallway on her way back from the bathroom.

She'd woken up late for school, spilled coffee all over her jacket in the car, and had still received a reprimand from her homeroom teacher on tardiness.

And when he'd asked her slyly if she'd 'had a late appointment' the night before, she'd just snapped.

After a moment of silence, Logan still hadn't managed to recover from the shock, his mouth still open. He felt as if he'd been punched in the stomach. She'd managed to knock the wind out of him with that one word. Hate.

He stuttered over his next word. "Wh...What?" He gazed at her for a long moment, his brows furrowed, different emotions playing across his face.

Part of him understood how she could hate him. He had after all been the one to turn the student body against her. He'd been the one in charge of making her life hell for over a year. He'd publicly slandered her father, slashed her tires, and even taken a crowbar to her headlights.

But another part of him couldn't understand at all. The Veronica he'd been friends with hadn't been able to hate anyone or anything. It was the one thing her large heart didn't seem to have the capacity for. And even though her attitude and her clothes and her hair had changed, Logan had never considered that her _heart_ may have hardened as well.

"What?" Logan repeated, more to himself than the small blonde standing in front of him .

As Veronica watched the confusion portrayed on his face change from confusion, to disbeleif, and then unmistakably to hurt, she felt her own hard stare soften to remorse.

Stuttering as if wanting to say something else, Logan finally turned and hurried off in the direction from which he'd originally come.

Veronica stared after him until the bell ran, and she was forced to shake the jumble of thoughts in her head in order to go retrieve her bag from class.

* * *

Troy dropped his bag on the ground and slid onto the bench beside Veronica, reaching over to take a fry off of Wallace's plate. 

The other boy scowled at him, but grinned as Troy turned his attention to the blonde beside him, snapping his fingers in front of her as she seemed to be staring off into space. "Hey! Earth to Mars!"

As Veronica tore her gaze away from the 09er table in which the king was conspicuously missing from, she scowled at her boyfriend. "Earth to Mars? I must have heard that joke about a million times since kindergarten. It wasn't funny back then, and its not funny now."

Troy feigned hurt. "So you're coming to my party tomorrow night right? At the beach house?"

Veronica furrowed her eyebrows. "Troy, I really don't know. 09er parties and I just don't really mix."

Troy pouted. "But its _my_ 09er party. And Wallace is going!"

After about five minutes of coaxing, Veronica gave a small smile and agreed. She convinced herself she'd be fine. She could bring her own bottle of water to drink, and leave after an hour. Besides, she had Wallace now. And Troy.

Her boyfriend pecked her on the lips in thanks just as the bell rang.

As the quad began to empty, Veronica got up and slowly made her way towards the journalism room.

* * *

Veronica had hoped that if she took long enough to walk to journalism class, then Logan would have already arrived and she would be able to avoid a confrontation with him. 

She knew she wasn't the only one doing the avoiding, if Logan's skipping lunch was any indication.

However, it seemed that Logan had had the same idea. The two stopped in front of each other, coming face to face directly in front of the classroom's doorway. Logan stared at her while Veronica focused her gaze on the tiled floor beneath her feet.

The moment was the epitome of awkward, and Veronica was more than relieved when Miss Dent broke their silence from the door. "Logan. Veronica. Are you coming in?"

Veronica brought her gaze up to stare at Logan. He appeared to give a small flinch, and then moved past her and down the hallway towards the school exit.

"Logan!" Miss Dent yelled after him. Letting out a frustrated sigh, the teacher looked on Veronica with almost a sympathetic expression. "Veronica. Are _you _coming in?"

She almost felt like going after him. She didn't know why. If anyone deserved her hate the most, it would be Logan Echolls. But somehow hurting him didn't cause her the satisfaction that it should have.

It took a moment for Veronica to tear her gaze away from the doors which Logan had just exited. She nodded half heartedly at her teacher, and slipped into the classroom quietly.

With one last glance around the hallway, Miss Dent closed the door behind her.

* * *

A/N: so, thats the first half. maybe not as long as i would have liked, but oh well :) please review and let me know what you think! this was originally going to only have two parts with a possible sequel, but i've decided based on feedback to stick with it for longer. see, reviewing works :) 


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: hey guys, so I guess I owe everyone a large apology for the incredibly long wait. Lets chalk it up to writers block and a crazy school year, and leave it at that. Since most people requested that I make this longer than a two-parter, I'm attempting to do that. See? Reviewing works:)

* * *

Just Not Enemies  
Part 2/?

* * *

She sighed as she ran a hand through her hair, staring at her reflection in the mirror. Her black sleeveless dress came to just above her knees, and her hair was curled, falling slightly past her chin.

She'd thought of wearing something more foreboding, more virginal to ward off any unwanted attention. But she had worn her white virginal sundress to Shelly Pomroy's and when she had left, she'd been anything _but _virginal.

So, she'd concluded that what she wore didn't matter. As long as she had her trustworthy boyfriend and water bottle by her side, she'd be fine.

But if she was honest with herself, it wasn't _really_ Shelly Pomroy's party that was weighing so heavily on her mind. It was Logan, or more specifically, the look on his face after she'd told him she hated him.

For a long time she'd assumed that she did in fact hate him to a certain extent, but if the sinking feeling in her stomach was any indication, she had been wrong.

She couldn't stand how sad, even devastated he'd seemed outside of Journalism. And she hated that more than anything.

She sighed, dreading that fact that she knew what she had to do for things to return to normal between them…. apologize.

Laughing bitterly at the fact that she now considered her and Logan's hurtful snarking to be normal, she turned towards the doorway where her father now stood.

"Troy's here," he stated, his suspicion of the boy evident in his voice. "You look beautiful," he added more softly.

She smiled back at him, picking up her purse from her bed and kissing him on the cheek.

"Don't wait up!" she said with the most perkiness she could muster.

But if there was one thing she could count on in her crazy spiraling world, it was that her father was going to wait up for her anyways.

* * *

The music was blaring, making communication nearly impossible.

Troy pulled her through the crowds, and she followed blindly, trying to avoid some of the quizzical glances she was receiving from other partygoers. It had been a long time since she had shown up to an 09er party, and this hadn't gone unnoticed or unappreciated by most of her peers.

Stopping in front of a keg, Troy offered her a beer, of which she immediately declined, holding up her water bottle with a weak smile.

It wasn't until Troy offered a drink to the boy who stood across from them that she realized Logan's presence.

At Troy's offer Logan tore his gaze away from the blonde in order to decline. "Brought my own. And it's the good stuff," he said, holding up a bottle of some unidentified substance.

Troy laughed, slapping him on the back as he walked away. Veronica stayed a moment longer however, studying him as he avoided her gaze.

As she left, she saw him raise the bottle to his lips, and silently prayed that Duncan was here somewhere, looking after him like old times.

* * *

It was hours before she saw him again. Needing a break from all the noise and activity, she had ventured outside.

The downside of beach house parties was drunken skinny dipping, but luckily, the crowd hadn't yet reached that particular level of crazy.

The only other figure on the beach was that of a teenage boy, slumped over and sitting in the sand, bottle of alcohol in one hand as the other ran through his hair.

She silently came to sit beside him and becoming aware of her presence he sighed, but his gaze remained on the waves in front of him.

The silence enveloped them for a while, as she tried to muster up the courage she would need to speak.

Finally, she found the words she had been looking for. "I'm sorry…"

He finally looked at her then, and the burning anger in his eyes startled her. "For what? You hate me. No big deal. Like I need some backstabbing bitch liking me anyways."

Veronica gave a sad sigh, her voice quiet in her response, "But still, I shouldn't have said it… Not when I can't mean it."

Logan's response was to take a swig from the bottle in his hands, hissing as it burned the back of his throat.

Deciding it was a lost cause, Veronica stood. She dusted the sand off of her dress and turned, ready to make the short walk back up to the beach house when his voice, soft like her own, interrupted her.

"I miss you… I miss _everything_."

She turned around slowly to stare at him quizzically. She smiled sadly at him, retaking her seat in the sand. "I …miss you too."

Logan took another swig of his bottle before speaking again. "I think she'd be proud of you, you know. You've been strong. Unlike me." He told her bitterly.

"You're strong in your own way Logan." She didn't know why she felt it was her duty to assure him, but it was. Even if that meant lying.

Logan chuckled bitterly. "Putting other people down in order to feel better isn't being strong Veronica. It's being a psychotic jackass. You don't have to lie to me just because I'm drunk and you feel sorry for me."

Veronica's eyes widened at the truth in his statement, and it took her a moment to continue the conversation. "You hurt me."

Unshed tears shined in her eyes, and Logan understood immediately how hard it was for this new Veronica to admit that.

"I'm sorry." It was probably the most sincere he had ever been, because he genuinely was.

Veronica's answer was soft, yet the sound of her voice betrayed her statement as a sudden realization. "I know."

There was a long pause, only the breaking of the waves disturbing the oddly comfortable silence.

"So…" Logan finally started, his eyes glancing at the girl beside him."…friends?" he asked, trying to mask the hopefulness in his request.

Veronica took another minute to answer, as if their entire relationship was flashing through her eyes.

There was the first time they met, at the Kane's Halloween party. She had been a soccer player, and he had been Peter Pan.

Then there was the time in eighth grade where Dick had called her fat, and Logan had spent the rest of the day trying to get her to eat out of "concern for how frail she was looking."

And there was the time sophomore year when a game of seven minutes in heaven had made her feel too guilty to look Duncan in the eye for weeks.

But there was also the time he had bashed her headlights in with a crowbar, the time he had been smirking at her as she read the word 'whore' painted across her locker. And worst of all, there was the image of him, standing in his doorway and looking at her through cold and empty eyes, telling her to get out of his life for good.

Finally, she answered. "No…just…not enemies."

Swallowing hard, Logan ran a frustrated hand through his hair as Veronica stood to go.

After taking a few steps back towards the party, she turned back to look at him one more time. "But… we can work on it," she offered before finally leaving.

Logan remained in the sand with the waves as his only company. He was sick and tired of his life, and if proving himself to Veronica would help him achieve one with any semblance towards his old one, then he would do it.

She would realize that he was the same person he had been before Lilly's death. And she would help him to realize that as well.

* * *

A/N: so the next chapter? probably a week or so. reviews make my day :) ! 


End file.
